The Decline and Fall of the Mormon Empire

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By Jill Martin Rische 

God is moving in the hearts of the Mormon people, calling them to Him. It’s coming — the decline and fall of the vast Latter Day Saint Empire, and it is crumbling from within.

When the Internet first arrived, many feared it would extend the reach of the Mormon Church, but though their voice is heard, what sounds even louder and longer is the voice of dissent. God is using the Internet to shine an intense light into the dark corners of Mormonism. Search engines like Google are now the nemesis of the Mormon leadership, often leading young people to ask embarrassing questions like, “Why didn’t you tell me Joseph Smith was a polygamist?” Mormons of all ages are leaving, even at the risk of losing their children and grandchildren to the cruel Mormon practice of “shunning” because, unlike their leaders, they cannot live a lie.

The squeaky clean Mormon faces in all those “I am a Mormon” commercials portray a growing church with a diverse and happy membership, but it is a diversity only recently embraced in 1978, when the Mormon heavenly father changed his mind and found men with dark skin worthy of the priesthood. That option is still not available to women. Since then, many Mormons have discovered even more troubling facts and left the church, while a majority of those who remain on Mormon rolls are now “inactive.”

ABC 4 News, Salt Lake City, confirms that record numbers are leaving the church, with sociologists placing active membership at the 5 million mark — a record loss of almost 70% of the membership of the Mormon Church. This substantiates the downward trend that apologist Kurt Van Gorden and I noted in The Kingdom of the Cults (2008). Statistics from the site: www.whymormonsleave.com pinpoint the top reasons Mormons lose their testimony as I ceased to believe in the church’s doctrine/theology, followed closely by I studied church history and lost my belief, and I lost faith in Joseph Smith.

One anecdotal source posting on YouTube as Gidget Lawrence sums up what countless online Mormon-focused discussion boards are saying, “The LDS Church is definitely losing members in large numbers in Utah. Much of this is due to an influx of evangelical Christians from other states.

Mormonism in Utah stood pretty much uncontested until the ’90s. Now, there are many voices exposing the truth about Mormon history and the heretical teaching of Joseph Smith. People such as the late Walter Martin, Sandra Tanner, Doris Hanson, Bill McKeever, and Shawn McCraney have made a significant impact in the state over the last 20 years.”

This is the fruit God continues to give to those who love the Mormon people and work tirelessly to make sure they have access to all of the facts.

The truth surfaced slowly but surely over the years, confirmed more recently by the lack of any DNA evidence linking Native Americans to the Book of Mormon, the missing archaeological proof, the Book of Abraham fraud, and the recent work of renowned LDS Historian Grant Palmer in his book, An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins.

And finally, there are the unguarded statements that mushroom into bombshell stories, like those made by General Authority Elder Marlin Jensen, the official historian of the Mormon Church. When asked last year if LDS Leaders knew members were “leaving in droves,” Elder Jensen replied, “We are aware…and I’m speaking of the 15 men that are above me in the hierarchy of the church.”

Jensen argued that the loss in membership was not “apocalyptic” but that “maybe since Kirtland (1837), we’ve never had a period of — I’ll call it apostasy, like we’re having now.” That’s 176 years of Mormon history and not a single period during all that time compares with the apostasy happening today? Apocalyptic does indeed seem to fit, and Elder Jensen has since been “released” from his position in the church.

There are cracks in the glistening white dam of Mormonism. Tiny, fragmented, and growing rapidly, they now spread from home to home and ward to ward, all the way up to the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church — apostles who, according to a highly placed source, no longer believe in the Joseph Smith story but will never speak the words for fear they will lose substantial financial benefits given to them when they became Apostles.

Another member of the First Quorum of the Seventies, second only to the Twelve Mormon Apostles, has recently admitted the truth of a Mormon leadership in apostasy. “It takes about two to three years before the new apostle discovers that the church is not true. He said it took Dieter F. Uchtdorf a little longer because he was an outsider. He said they privately talk among themselves and know the foundational claims of the restoration are not true….”

These men keep up the pretense of belief because “the people need it,” even though the people will go to hell because of it. They call fellow Mormons on the carpet at disciplinary hearings for daring to challenge the truth of Mormonism, when multiple sources suggest they don’t believe a word of it themselves. Corrupt? Evil? The opinion of many who have left the church is that they are all this and more — hardcore businessmen ruling a Mormon empire worth billions, who are not about to throw away a lucrative source of income.

Years ago, Walter Martin predicted the fall of the Mormon Church would begin from within, saying that “When God destroyed Goliath of Gath, he didn’t do it with the stones. He cut off his head with his own sword. The twitching corpse of Mormon theology will lie there one day because its head was cut off by its own archives.” There is now a daily current of credible information available online to anyone with a question about the truth of Mormonism; secrets once hidden in Mormon archives are finding their way out.

God is using biblical truth, history, and technology to touch the hearts of people. He is using the Sword of the Spirit inside the Mormon Church, and the head of Goliath is within reach.

For a list of sources and further information, please visit

www.waltermartin.com

Filed under: BODY OF CHRIST, END TIMES, OP-ED Tagged: Bill McKeever, Book of Mormon, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Joseph Smith, Mormon, Mormon Church, Mormonism

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